Jan 7, 2025 – As with every new release, it’s fun and interesting to see just which of our 50 new designs are Cardie favorites right out of the gate. With 60 million Americans in 18 states now holed up safely inside away from the heavy snow, freezing rain, and strong winds, Game Nights is taking the Cardie Community by storm!
We credit Contributing Cardie Felicia Elenum for the new Meanings of Life card concept she proposed several years ago, back when she was Cardie Community Manager. She and her husband regularly host gaming get-togethers for a group of friends and she thought it would be great to have a card that celebrates those playful recipients. When she saw her idea finally brought to life, Felicia said, “My favorite part of the card is the inside message because I tell my friends all the time that, even though I like them a lot, I’ll never let them win. :) And Zach laughed out loud when he read it, so there’s more proof it hits the mark!”
Considering the pleasure of playing board games together with the challenges of weather takes me back to a memorable childhood night in central Illinois, seeing my mom and big brothers stretched out on the living room floor playing hours and hours of Monopoly while Dad monitored tornado sightings on the radio. While I was too young then to recall it all now, I love that what I remember most about that night was the family laughter and competition and ribbing that went on before Dad scurried us to the basement where we huddled safely together listening to that twister blow out every window of our 12-room farmhouse and uproot dozens of generations-old trees.
Seeing the Scrabble board especially reminds me of spending Christmas holidays flat out on the living room floor of my Dad’s house on the Gulf Coast in my 30s, just he and I playing a game or two each evening. Ha! One night I made the daring move of placing on the board a four-letter word that rhymes with duck. Well, as distressing and depressing as it is today that we can’t turn on the radio or a podcast, watch a movie, or hear kids on a passing school bus without hearing that profanity, three decades ago it was a word that neither of us heard much less used, so my father was floored seeing it staring up at him.
Seriously, he was apoplectic, insisting, “You CANNOT place that word! Remove it right now.” I laughed him off saying, “Dad. It’s a game and the letters just jumped out from the other three, begging to be played. I think you need to lighten up.”
“Lighten up?!?” he said, shaking his head and bulging his eyes. “What if Pope John Paul were to walk in here and see that word lying there?!” Dad asked with some angst. “What would he think?!” With my own eyes now rolling around in my head I said, “Dad, it’s just us. I highly doubt that the Pope will pop by this evening, at least not before we finish this game, so he’ll never see it. Come on, your play!”
“No. It’s just not right,” my not-unholy father insisted. “It’s horrible to see that word spelled out for all the world to see.” And when I again pointed out, “Dad, it’s not ‘the world,’ it’s you and me,” he came right back with, “But what if Skip and Edith from next door decide to let themselves in … what would they think if they looked down and saw that spelled out there?!” Cheeky offspring that I was at the time, I replied, “Hmm, I’m guessing they would think, ‘Huh, another 13 points for Jodee!’” 😉 We finally struck a compromise with, “Will you at least turn the F over to the blank side!” which I did.
Hehe, my fast friend and Contributing Cardie Maureen Kund happened to call just after I’d typed in the story above. Knowing she’d had a close relationship with her dear dad, too, I read the story to Mo; we laughed and then lamented the degradation of society and shifting of linguistics that would allow for the word to be so commonplace today.
Then my retired police detective and active philosopher friend said, “Rather than the F-word, I’ve always been more a fan of the G-words.” She went on to explain, “Grateful. Gracious. Genuine. Gentle. Generous. Words to live by!” I could only think in admiration, “She would make a dad and the Pope both proud!”
Everyone in the arctic zone, please grab a game or your stash of cards and stay safe and warm and in laughing mode.
Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative
Jan 7, 2025 – As with every new release, it’s fun and interesting to see just which of our 50 new designs are Cardie favorites right out of the gate. With 60 million Americans in 18 states now holed up safely inside away from the heavy snow, freezing rain, and strong winds, Game Nights is taking the Cardie Community by storm!
We credit Contributing Cardie Felicia Elenum for the new Meanings of Life card concept she proposed several years ago, back when she was Cardie Community Manager. She and her husband regularly host gaming get-togethers for a group of friends and she thought it would be great to have a card that celebrates those playful recipients. When she saw her idea finally brought to life, Felicia said, “My favorite part of the card is the inside message because I tell my friends all the time that, even though I like them a lot, I’ll never let them win. :) And Zach laughed out loud when he read it, so there’s more proof it hits the mark!”
Considering the pleasure of playing board games together with the challenges of weather takes me back to a memorable childhood night in central Illinois, seeing my mom and big brothers stretched out on the living room floor playing hours and hours of Monopoly while Dad monitored tornado sightings on the radio. While I was too young then to recall it all now, I love that what I remember most about that night was the family laughter and competition and ribbing that went on before Dad scurried us to the basement where we huddled safely together listening to that twister blow out every window of our 12-room farmhouse and uproot dozens of generations-old trees.
Seeing the Scrabble board especially reminds me of spending Christmas holidays flat out on the living room floor of my Dad’s house on the Gulf Coast in my 30s, just he and I playing a game or two each evening. Ha! One night I made the daring move of placing on the board a four-letter word that rhymes with duck. Well, as distressing and depressing as it is today that we can’t turn on the radio or a podcast, watch a movie, or hear kids on a passing school bus without hearing that profanity, three decades ago it was a word that neither of us heard much less used, so my father was floored seeing it staring up at him.
Seriously, he was apoplectic, insisting, “You CANNOT place that word! Remove it right now.” I laughed him off saying, “Dad. It’s a game and the letters just jumped out from the other three, begging to be played. I think you need to lighten up.”
“Lighten up?!?” he said, shaking his head and bulging his eyes. “What if Pope John Paul were to walk in here and see that word lying there?!” Dad asked with some angst. “What would he think?!” With my own eyes now rolling around in my head I said, “Dad, it’s just us. I highly doubt that the Pope will pop by this evening, at least not before we finish this game, so he’ll never see it. Come on, your play!”
“No. It’s just not right,” my not-unholy father insisted. “It’s horrible to see that word spelled out for all the world to see.” And when I again pointed out, “Dad, it’s not ‘the world,’ it’s you and me,” he came right back with, “But what if Skip and Edith from next door decide to let themselves in … what would they think if they looked down and saw that spelled out there?!” Cheeky offspring that I was at the time, I replied, “Hmm, I’m guessing they would think, ‘Huh, another 13 points for Jodee!’” 😉 We finally struck a compromise with, “Will you at least turn the F over to the blank side!” which I did.
Hehe, my fast friend and Contributing Cardie Maureen Kund happened to call just after I’d typed in the story above. Knowing she’d had a close relationship with her dear dad, too, I read the story to Mo; we laughed and then lamented the degradation of society and shifting of linguistics that would allow for the word to be so commonplace today.
Then my retired police detective and active philosopher friend said, “Rather than the F-word, I’ve always been more a fan of the G-words.” She went on to explain, “Grateful. Gracious. Genuine. Gentle. Generous. Words to live by!” I could only think in admiration, “She would make a dad and the Pope both proud!”
Everyone in the arctic zone, please grab a game or your stash of cards and stay safe and warm and in laughing mode.
Jodee Stevens
Founder & Chief Creative
Let’s hear it for great dads, game nights, and all the g words!
Unlike Jodee, I grew up in NJ.
I don’t recall playing scrabble with my Aunt & Uncle who raised me.
I do recall coming home as a teenager to my apartment where I lived with them.
They were having a big holiday party with their friends.
After a ‘few’ beers they were NOT playing ‘Pin the Tail on the paper Donkey’.
However, they were playing ‘Pin the Boobs on the paper lady’.
Luckily the Pope did not stop by ;)
Enjoy game night!